Final Summer – Review

Pack your bags for Final Summer – an ’80s-inspired summer camp slasher that sees a group of camp counsellors fighting for their lives against a masked killer. This blood- squirting, brutally brilliant horror is the impressive directorial debut from John Isberg – who also writes and co-produces the film – and is set for its UK digital release on the 18th of September 2023, courtesy of Miracle Media Limited.

We head back to 1991, after a long summer of fun and games at Camp Silverlake, where organisers are preparing to shut down the camp for the final season before it is sold to developers.

Final Summer is a well shot (night scenes are actually watchable, take note Disney!!), solidly acted love letter to 80’s slasher movies.

There are more Easter Eggs than you can shake a blood spattered Machete at and more than a few direct mentions of the modern classics of horror, even the name of the camp is a delight for genre fans in the know.

Unfortunately, as much as it tries to fit in, none of it particularly lands.

The camp inhabitants are a useless bunch of idiot teens (as expected in slashers of this type) who just move from cabin to cabin doing increasingly terrible levels of “hiding”.

I didn’t particularly feel anything for any of the characters, none of their backgrounds were built on so there was nothing to feel for them, Lexi (the final girl) is given some form of backstory shown in flashbacks, but it is lost in the muddle of why there’s a killer stalking the soon to be closed summer camp in the first place and then is largely pointless to the overall “first Jason” motif that it felt like it was leading to.

So many tropes are used in the film that it feels more like you’re waiting for the next one rather than feeling anything for the characters.

The killer is shown pretty quick, and looks decent after picking up the skull mask, looking like a 140 denier thermal tight wearing bank robber who’s sprayed a skull face on. Pretty good.

Other than looking cool though, he’s pretty ineffectual, completely unbelievable and a complete mystery as to why he’s not killed within moments of being discovered. He’d definitely be suffering the effects of multiple concussions by the final third of the film.

For me, low budget horror films need a certain something to succeed. Things like being absolutely packed with gore, having a solid psychological thriller storyline, tight script, effective jump scares or heavy supernatural slant. It’s a shame that Final Summer leans into the Friday the 13th tropes but doesn’t add anything new or completely nail any of the existing ideas.

The almost complete lack of gore makes the kills extremely disappointing, the gangly movement of our killer along with pretty much all of the cast being able to dodge attacks or just bitch slap him makes him less land shark and more baby shark (doo doo doo doo doo doo, sorry). Which is a genuine shame as his look is great and he could have been SO much more.

Overall Final Summer is a decent ode to slasher horror with some great performances, familiar faces and nice nods to the genre. It takes itself slightly too seriously and is just missing a certain something to make it great.

It will find a place with horror fans for sure, and I can see convention appearances aplenty for the cast. Who knows, it may well even spawn a franchise?!

You can take a trip to Camp Silverlake when it gets its UK digital release on the 18th of September 2023, courtesy of Miracle Media Limited.

Here’s the trailer.